Kate Chopin's success as a writer plummeted after the release of The Awakening. It has been noted that contemporary critics were shocked at the way Chopin portrayed Edna Pontellier. Edna's character violated the codes of the behavior of nineteenth-century American women. The criticism became so bad the The Awakening was banned and dropped out of sight for many generations. It was not until the 1960's that Kate Chopin was recognized as a writer with her own views. Elaine Showalter states "Kate Chopin's literary evolution took her progressively through the three phases of the nineteenth-century American women's culture and women's writing." (176).
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